Bif&st 2021 International Award for Best Lead Actor to TIMOTHY SPALL

“The jury is honored to award Timothy Spall for his moving performance in the Last Bus, where the flawless portrait of a dying man becomes a true celebration of LIFE.”

$2.3m WW B.O. so far as of March 2024

Pitch

An old man crosses the country just using local buses

Logline

John O’Groats, Scotland:

Heart-warming tale of an old man (Timothy Spall) whose wife (Phyllis Logan) has just passed away- and with his free local bus pass travels to the other end of the UK- to where they originally moved from- using only local buses, on a nostalgic trip but also carrying his wife’s ashes in a small suitcase, ‘taking her back’ and in doing so he meets local people, and by the end of his trip he’s a celebrity.

Cast

Timothy Spall – Tom

(MRS LOWRY & SON, FINDING YOUR FEET, THE PARTY, DENIAL, MR TURNER, KING’S SPEECH, HARRY POTTER: DEATHLY HALLOWS 1&2 and will next be seen in SPENCER.

Phyllis Logan – Mary

(MISBEHAVIOUR, DOWNTON ABBEY the Movie), DOWNTON ABBEY Seasons 1-6, NATIVITY!, SECRETS & LIES and will next be seen in DOWNTON ABBEY: A New Era )

Filmmakers

Director: Gillies MacKinnon (HIDEOUS KINKY w/ Kate Winslet, TARA ROAD w/ Andie MacDowell, SMALL FACES, WHISKEY GALORE w/ Eddie Izzard )

Producers: Sol Papadopoulos & Roy Boulter (A PRAYER BEFORE DAWN, A QUIET PASSION, SUNSET SONG, SOMETIMES ALWAYS NEVER)

Writer: Joe Ainsworth

Presented by Head Gear Films, Metrol Technology, Kreo Films, Quickfire and Creative Scotland, in co-production with Magnetic Productions, in Association With Celsius Entertainment and LipSync Productions.
Executive producers are Phil Hunt, Compton Ross, James Atherton, Jan Pace, Thierry Wase-Bailey, Henriette Wollmann, Jennifer Armitage, Norman Merry, Peter Hampden and Timothy Spall.

Status

Completed.

Supported by the UK Global Screen Fund – a DCMS fund administered by the BFI

CREDITS NOT CONTRACTUAL